School Daze

Two school orientations down and one to go! Daniel caught his early morning bus without a problem. I followed him to school so I could attend a parent meeting at 7:45 a.m. only to find out that there really wasn't a 7:45 a.m. parent meeting, only the parent breakfast scheduled at 9. This after I called last week to confirm that indeed there were two separate events, the parent meeting AND the new parent breakfast/info session. Hmph. So I had more than an hour to kill at Northwood High, and decided to check in with the school nurse to make sure I had all the diabetes ducks in a row for Daniel. While in her office Nora calls from her bus stop to say that her bus never showed up and there is another kid there with her mom who will give her a ride to school and can she go? Agh!!

Parental dilemma. Nora is a well-rounded, intelligent girl. The girl at the bus stop is someone whom she met at the arts orientation last week. I don't know her name. I don't know her parent. Do I tell my daughter to get in the car with a stranger?

In the end I trust Nora's intuition, but tell her to call me when she gets to her school.

I move on to talk to Daniel's guidance counselor, and then go to the media center to wait for the parent meeting, where I swig intensely strong Starbucks coffee to counteract the intensely soporific slug of Benadryl that I took earlier in the morning because I was feeling hivey.

Meeting time approaches. No call from Nora. She should be at school by now. After a few frantic phone calls to 1) husband, 2) middle school office, 3) transportation office, 4) husband again, my phone beeps with a message. The middle school office found Nora. I am relieved AND I want to throttle her!

Tomorrow is Dominic's elementary school orientation. Dominic is kissing me as I type, making it almost impossible to see the screen. So it's time to go, time to prepare dinner, time...